A contract firefighter monitors the fire line along the perimeter of a prescribed burn in Bear Valley on Oct. 19, 2022.

BEAR VALLEY — The leader of a Forest Service crew conducting a prescribed burn in a remote area of Grant County was arrested on charges of reckless burning after the fire spread across a containment line onto private land on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Forest Service and contract employees had been conducting burn operations throughout the day on a 300-acre area of the Malheur National Forest north of the Izee-Paulina Highway, about 7 miles north of Seneca.

At approximately 5 p.m, a spot fire was reported on private land across the highway from the burn area.

As the fire was actively burning on the Holliday family’s Windy Point Ranch, Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley arrived on the scene and took Rick Snodgrass, 39, who was acting as the burn boss on the fire crew, into custody.

Snodgrass was transported to the Grant County Jail and later released.

The sheriff’s office said in a brief press release that it was working with the Forest Service to identify the events that led to the fire’s escape and the incident remains under investigation.

Malheur National Forest Supervisor Craig Trulock said the escaped portion of the fire on private land was contained in about an hour, with crews remaining on the scene to mop up any hotspots or flare-ups.

“They caught it with the resources they had on scene,” Trulock said. “We didn’t use aviation or anything. The only additional resource we brought on was (a) dozer, and that was to really secure the edge of the spot so that they could then mop it up.”

Estimates of the extent of the fire on private land vary.

Trulock placed the total burned acreage on private land at 18 acres, while the sheriff’s office said it was approximately 20 acres. Chad Holliday of Windy Point Ranch estimated the total area as 40 acres.

This is a developing story.